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this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Reminder: "separating the art from the artist" is an approach to engaging with an artwork, and is a separate question from whether or not you should engage with an artwork when doing so has real life consequences.
Whether or not you should consume HP Lovecraft media despite the fact he was a racist is entirely up to you because he is long dead. He doesn't make any money. He isn't even racist any more. Because he's dead.
When you consider whether or not you consume Harry Potter media, you must consider that JK Rowling will make money and will donate that money to anti-trans groups. If you still go on to buy licensed merch, or pay a streaming service to watch it, you will literally be helping to propogate transphobia. Continue to enjoy anything you currently own if you want. That is where separating the art from the artist comes into it. But if you still actively promote the material online and thereby increase the demand for it; again, transphobia, arguably.
Can we pirate it. Or will that just make it more popular
Edit: or should we just boycott
Pirating it wouldn't make it more popular if you kept it to yourself, but talking about it after you watched it probably would.
I have to say, this is just such an in-the-weeds moral stance that it crosses the boundary of reasonableness. Honestly, it's this sort of thing that drove me away from left wing styles of thinking a while ago.
The impact you make on the world in any of your possible actions with regard to Harry Potter is miniscule. Like, truly, utterly insignificant. Are you going to organize an anti-potter boycott? Participate in a protest? Harass the actors in an online trolling movement? Throw eggs at JK Rawling's house? Great! Go do all those things! Actively participate in changing the world for the better! These actions might actually lead to real change.
But denying yourself pleasures in the name of moral purity accomplishes nothing. If all you do is sit at home and think to yourself "I wanna watch the new Harry Potter thing, but I can't, because then I'm a bad person." (or in this case, "I wanna talk to my friends about the new Harry Potter thing I pirated, but I can't, because then I'm a bad person) then you are accomplishing literally nothing except making yourself miserable. Again, if you are going to actually do something, then go do it! But if you don't have the time or energy or interest or social battery to actually do something, then shaming yourself or others into not doing things is actively counterproductive. Go take a road trip without calculating if the pleasure you will derive is worth the carbon footprint! Eat an ice cream cone without feeling bad about the the suffering of the factory farmed cow it came from! Get one of those good-paying jobs in oil and gas or defence and make some goddamned money! You are simply not important enough for any of these actions to have any actual real-world impact. The only thing that happens is that you convince yourself that if you ever enjoy anything, then you are a bad person. You train yourself to constantly be looking for the ways in which life's simple pleasures are destroying the world, so you can feel bad about them.
Just stop it. Be happy. Do whatever you need to do to chill out and enjoy your life and gain some sense of contentedness and security. And then go out and make the world a better place by actually doing something. Hyper-anxious, shame-ridden, depressed know-it-alls rarely create effective social change because no one wants to hang out with them. No one see them and thinks "yeah, that's what I want my life to look like."
In order to lead by example you have to show a path to a better world. Not a cell.
Don't confuse that mentality for left-wing thinking. It is an entirely liberal, center-right reactionary mentality to be overly concerned about optics and moral purity.
What you have said is actual left-wing thinking. You have essentially described the point of "no ethical consumption under capitalism". That if people really care about this, then they need to actually do something about it instead of just shaming others for indulging on simple creature comforts.
Guarantee that the people bitching about others enjoying HP media also go home to suck down a bottle of Coke which directly funds militant anti-labor hit squads in South America to prevent their bottling plants from unionizing. Or maybe they are a Pepsi person, where their purchase has helped fund the exploitation of prisoners who are forced for pennies an hour to make their cans. Or any other of the myriad of things under our current economic structure that funnels wealth into the hands of the elite who seek to oppress the working class.
You are hardly the arbiter of what is left wing thinking. Fuck ethics im going to concern myself with my own needs is apolitical. Its neither Left nor right.
I mean, you're more than welcome to stay politically ignorant. I'm not an arbiter, but I am just describing facts.
Also, what they said was absolutely not 'fuck ethics I'm going to concern myself with my own needs"
Nice bad faith misrepresentation of what they said.
Also most people's actions are on the overall ALL small. Most people make no big ripples. Telling them to either change the world or do nothing is telling them to do nothing.
Ethics are a habit if you can't give up a tv show what can you do exactly
Ethics isn't just big things it's little things as well. I don't matter I shouldn't need to do anything just isn't Left or right wing it is an apolitical thought. Claiming that because you hold yourself to be left-wing and you thought it and thus it is left wing thinking is just flat out wrong. Please explain exactly how Im wrong. Explain how your position is left wing
Just pirate it and don't speak about it. Win win. No monkey for the bigot and you get your pleasure.
Congratulations. You successfully managed to both not engage with my point in any meaningful way, and also provided a solution I already deflated in the comment you are responding to.
You didn't successfully deflate it
The potential pleasure is in speaking about it.
Instead of not enjoying something why not enjoy something else there is finite time and far more to enjoy than you shall ever find time.
What of value would be lost?
If being a POS takes half of your income potential away people will be less likely to behave so and others will think it less acceptable.
Dismissing the aggregate effect of small effects is dismissing most actual effects. Its ahistorical.
I think its best to move on
Anyway, will most probably be shit. 99% of series these days are bad and just money grabs.
There are usually some good scenes or themes or characters that make some of the 99% worth a watch. The Netflix Avatar series was shit that didn't understand the tone of the original, except for the scenes added for Lu-Ten's Funeral and the 41st Division. These alone added enough for me to begrudgingly accept the existence of the live-action series. There are usually some things like that in most of the new ones I've seen.
Don't deprive yourself of happiness to spite her. That being said the books have several reasons to not read them on their own merits. Don't forget "dobby is weird for not wanting to be a slave" is an actual plot point in the books. Not to mention the goblins. If you want to revisit a beloved fantasy series, give LOTR another read/watch.
Count the number of times female characters are described as "shrill" or "screeching" etc. There's a weird misogyny and dedication to patriarchy that just oozes out of the books.
Only applies to artists who can no longer enjoy the spoils.
It’s up to society if we should separate a work from its artist. We’ve collectively agreed that this work shouldn’t survive the century. Not only that, you can’t separate an artist from their work when they’re literally tangled in it and controlling it
☠️
I agree with everything you wrote up to this point. I'm not really a Harry Potter fan and I certainly don't think much of J.K. Rowling since she revealed her true nature but this last bit is a very slippery slope.
You know the slippery slope fallacy right?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope
I had not seen that before but I'm not sure it applies. Perhaps the wording was poor to indicate my intent but it was not my intention to indicate "a chain reaction resulting in an undesirable end or ends" as that article says.
I was trying to communicate that making a broad statement, like OP did, that promoting Harry Potter online indicates transphobia or transphobic behavior by itself ignores both intent and context, which I think matters.
They're not saying it's transphobic, but it is promoting transphobia. Which isn't really any better in my books.
It literally is not, not without context and intent.
Somebody going online and posting, "I grew up with Harry Potter and loved it and I'm interested to see the new [whatever]" is not equivalent to promoting transphobia.
You cannot make a black and white determination like that without context and intent. Without those you're just making assumptions.
Except for the fact that the money spent on the movie directly funds transphobia via JK Rowling....
You get she's literally doing that right?
No, it indirectly funds her through a convoluted system of ownership and IP law.
The problem isn't people consuming media. The problem is the system that funnels wealth into the pockets of bigots.
You get that the only person who controls what JK Rowling does is her, right?
You don't have to like that someone may choose to continue to consume Harry Potter but trying to claim they are directly promoting transphobia unless the context and/or the intent is there.
Someone with a track record of transphobic behavior, sure. Someone who is posting about it in spaces intended for trans people, especially if that space has already clearly communicated their stance on it, maybe.
Context and intent matter.
Excuse me while for not caring about the difference when all the same, the money is still harming my community.
Your money is harming your community.
By your logic every person in the United States who pays any kind of taxes that go to the federal government is promoting transphobia. If you've ever shopped at a store that employs a transphobe, you're promoting transphobia. If you've ever watched a movie or tv show that has a transphobic actor in it, you're promoting transphobia. Doesn't matter if you know it because, they directly benefit from your money.
Everyone has choices to make, however the context and intent behind those choices matters.
I love how you chose an example I literally can't control like taxes.
And your right, I can't pick and choose every single thing. But you better believe there's a lot of media I won't enjoy because of actors either. Tom Cruise being one.
Intent matters. But when a community tells you hey, this action, that you could easily not not do, is harmful to me and my community.
Yes I do judge you for that choice.
You do have a choice; you could choose not to and face whatever consequences with your moral conviction intact.
This is you're right but it still doesn't make it literally promoting transphobia.
If it quacks like transphobia and it promotes transphobia.....
This is about the response I expected. Too bad.
Just not supporting jkr is a lot more clear-cut than all those other examples. It's easy unless you start justifying it.
Your logic is performatively neutral and comes from a place of callousness and complacency.
All of this counter-discussion on this topic is bad faith and/or political trolling and should be treated as such by mods and future readers.
The minute you step back and realize that somebody is really trying to argue against letting go of Harry Potter from such a weird angle, you realize how bad a take it really is. It's so bad, that it's hard to even be taken seriously beyond political strategy and wasting the time of the real people here who believe in standing up for what's right in such a shitty time in the world.
It's petty and shitty. You can consume Harry Potter and similar content if you wish, nobody will stop you. But anybody with half a brain realizes that the ethical move is to just let it go. Move on.
I haven't argued that at all. What I have argued is that context and intent matters when it comes to an individuals actions and, while you're free to judge away, just because someone lives ~~there~~ their life in a way you don't like doesn't automatically make them transphobic or mean they are literally promoting transphobia.
Edit: I had to come back for this bit.
I'm guessing this wasn't your intent but it reads like you should only take a stand when it's easy.
You know systemic bigotry needs not intent, or context, from the individual, right? You seem to be arguing that your personal lack of hatred towards a group, and lack of direct harm, means your actions can't be bigoted. And no, being forced to pay taxes is not the same as choosing to buy into something funding bigotry.
I don't know but I don't disagree with it. It's also not what I said.
I'm not. My feelings on the subject, hate or lack thereof, have nothing to do with it. I am arguing that consuming Harry Potter content or talking about it online is not equivalent to literally being transphobic or promoting transphobia. To make that determination requires context and intent.
They are not directly equivalent though it's interesting that's the only example I provided you're addressing.
You're not forced. You have the choice to not and face those consequences. It's an awful and unfair choice that nobody should even have to consider but it's there. By choosing not to refuse to pay doesn't mean you're literally being transphobic or promoting transphobia and that's the point.
You can disagree with someone's choice to consume HP content or their decision to discuss it online but that doesn't make it literally being transphobic or promoting transphobia. That requires context and intent.
Transphobia, by definition, consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender or transsexual people, or transness in general. Consuming HP content or talking about it does not meet that literal definition, until or unless there's context to support it and/or expressed intent, e.g. someone says "I hate trans people so I bought all the HP books to show my support".
That is "classic" bigotry, if you will. Systemic bigotry does not need these feelings, as you thoughts on the subject mean nothing to those who are the targets of the bigotry, as buying things that enrich their persecutors, and actively donating to those people ideologically, bears no significant difference to the persecuted, in any practical manner. Also, if it is something I can practically avoid, living in the world I was born into, then I do. Entertainment is like the poster child of things you can choose to avoid. Suggesting people live an impossibility does no good, but that is not what is happening with people telling people to drop JK Rowling's IP.
It is equivalent, because in this case, it is literally promoting transphobia. One of the worlds leading transphobes will directly benefit from the profits this show makes, and will directly turn those profits against dismantling the rights of trans folk.
This isn't an analogy, it's not dramatic license, or over exaggeration.
If you know she will hurt trans people with the money she makes, and you do things that continue to make her money (which includes just advocating for continued consumption of her work), it is black and white, and the context and intent are quite visible.
By itself, it doesn't mean someone is transphobic. But it does mean that at the very least, personal nostalgia is more important to that person than the harm their actions cause. And that is plenty of intent and context.
adverb: literally in a literal manner or sense; exactly.
It literallyis not. I posted the definition in case you needed it. Purchasing or consuming a product is not exactly the same as promoting transphobia.
By your logic every person in the United States who pays any kind of taxes that go to the federal government is promoting transphobia. If you've ever shopped at a store that employs a transphobe, you're promoting transphobia. If you've ever watched a movie or tv show that has a transphobic actor in it, you're promoting transphobia. Doesn't matter if you know it because, as you put it, they directly benefit from your money.
The only part of this that's true is "advocating for continued consumption of her work" and even that's a stretch because a person could have any number of reasons. Also, simply expressing interest in something is not advocating for it, it's sharing an opinion or preference.
It doesn't mean that, that's what you're assuming because that's what it means to you.
You do not make the rules for other people.
I am so tired of this "fall in line or else" attitude everyone seems to have.
You want to preface it with "in my opinion" you go right ahead and we'll have to agree to disagree but it is by definition and factually not literally promoting transphobia.
As I said, if not voluntarily giving money to or making excuses for someone who will use that money to hurt people is too much to ask of someone, then their context and intent is quite clear.
Including yours.
Except they aren't giving money to someone who will use it for harm. They are giving it to whatever production company has created the series.
It is only after this, and through a convoluted system of ownership and IP laws, that the production company is forced to give a percentage of its proceeds to the hateful bigot.
If you want to criticize anything, criticize that system. Not individuals for wanting to engage in simple creature comforts that they find enjoyable.
Its not.
Thanks for demonstrating. You can imply I'm transphobic or promoting transphobia but I'm literally not. I'm pretty comfortable with the balance I've struck and, quite honestly, I'm not being transphobic or promoting transphobia because I don't care if someone's trans or not. It's not really any of my business.
My general philosophy is that people are free to be whomever they want, believe whatever they want etc. as long as they aren't hurting others or forcing it on other people against there wishes.
This is why I don't like JK Rowling, but I wouldn't like her if she was actively working against black people or people with physical or mental disabilities or funding Israeli efforts in Gaza or any number of other things.
I don't agree with lots of people's beliefs but I actively dislike them when they begin to weaponize those beliefs.
What are some other fictional universes that you like?
I'm not sure I understand. I made no reference to fictional universes.
JK Rowling is rich enough to fund anti trans groups for decades without any input from us. Boycotting HP has no effect on trans rights.